Guest string quartet to perform at SFA

The Maia Quartet, guest artists from the University of Iowa, will present a free recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present the highly acclaimed Maia Quartet from the University of Iowa at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Praised by critics for their "sparkling musical intelligence," the four string players have appeared in major concert halls throughout the United States and abroad, including New York's Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and the 92nd Street Y; Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center; Beijing's Forbidden City Concert Hall; and Aspen Music Festival's Harris Hall.

During the Nacogdoches recital, the Maia Quartet will perform Joseph Haydn's Quartet in C Major "Emperor" Op. 77 No. 3, and Ernst Von Dohnanyi's Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 1, with pianist Michelle Schumann.

Clarinetist Christopher Ayer, SFA associate professor of music, will join the quartet in presenting Johannes Brahms' Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115.

The quartet's members, violinists Tricia Park and Zoran Jacovcic, violist Elizabeth Oakes and cellist Hannah Holman, are all on faculty at the University of Iowa. Previously, they all served as faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. The quartet's summer teaching engagements have included residencies at the Great Wall International Music Academy in Beijing, China; Interlochen Arts Camp; the Austin Chamber Music Festival; and the Thurnauer Chamber Music Camp in Tenafly, N.J.

"It's an amazing opportunity to hear an ensemble that has collaborated for so long," said Gene H. Moon, SFA director of orchestral studies. "The longer an ensemble remains intact, the more homogenous their sounds become. The Maia Quartet has been together for nearly 20 years, so you know their sounds will be incredible. I am very eager to hear their performance."

Admission to the recital is free and open to the public. The Cole Concert Hall is located in the Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Dr. on the SFA campus. For more information, please call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.